So, the amazing wasp sting was not the only excitement from the 4th! The final chapter was closed today – and E and I can breathe a sigh of relief.
On Saturday, July 1, the day could not have started off any better, kids playing and getting along. Then Stacy Van Iten, Bob, and myself heard the « oh no! » from Erica. Drop…..splash……in goes her wedding ring, to the bottom of the lake of the ozarks! Lucky for us, it was less than 10′ under the dock. Unlucky for us, it was Ozark water.
No sweat, we have insurance. I looked for it with a colander for a while sifting through inches of leaves, nothing. We tried a magnet, no luck. We had an offer to wait till the water recedes and use a metal detector – good plan! We go on about our weekend with great friends.
Fast forward to July 3, we are on our way home, and reality set in. The ring meant more to us than a replacement, the engagement, the wedding, and the anniversary band! Tears started flowing down her cheek – I had to do more.
I called the local dive shop and hired them to dive down to search for it. I drove all the way home, turned around and drove back down to the lake to meet the diver in the morning of July 4th. JJ went down with scuba gear with no luck – over an 1.5 hour dive.
I was disheartened, but needed to do more. I get on https://theringfinders.com/ and search for all the individuals listed in MO: called and talked to a gentleman in Lee’s Summit, Warrensburg, and Cape Girardeau. It was only when I spoke to Paul J. Miederhoff that I was assured he could find it. He actually told me « piece of cake » and to tell Erica he will find her ring! Wow – let’s do it I thought!
On July 5th, Paul starts his journey to the lake. He arrives and it is raining so he waits a while. He dives for 2 hours with a metal detector no luck. Since he was so far away, I agreed to get him a hotel. He text me that night saying he would find it in the morning, « I am confident » he reassures me. At this point, erica and I were planning for the worse case scenario – buying a new ring.
On July 6th, Paul again show up to start the search. He dives and pulls of plenty of debris, nuts, and bolts. I go about my day at work, in meetings here and there. I walk back to my desk and my phone is ringing, it was Bob. I thought he was calling to tell me that Paul was done and they could not find it. He asks me « did I get his text » I said « what text? » He asked me to check to see if it was the ring, I was absolutely blown away – THEY FOUND IT!
A gentleman I had never met before, not paid a dollar – drove over 200 miles to search for a wedding ring that plunged into LOZ! « Piece of Cake » Paul saved a really important piece of « us »!
Thank you Paul J. Miederhoff of The Ring Finders. If you know anyone that loses a ring, please have them get on RF and search for someone in their area to help! We lucked out and found Paul!
A special thanks Bob, Stacy, Al, Dottye, Jim, Brett, and Brooke for putting up with the craziness that ensued after we lost the ring!
Photo 1: Picture of « Piece of Cake » Paul and Erica – he drove all the way to Liberty and even agreed to meet us at Nile’s T-ball game!
Photo 2: And the ring back in it’s rightful place!
https://theringfinders.com/directory/us/mo
